Binance is playing coy about returning to the U.S. market, but one of crypto's biggest voices just bet it's inevitable. At Davos, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng called America "a very important marketplace" while hedging with a cautious "wait and see" posture. Minutes later, Ripple's Brad Garlinghouse went on the record predicting Binance will come back, citing the exchange's innovative DNA and profit motive. The dynamic reveals a crypto industry betting on regulatory clarity to bring the world's largest exchange back into the fold.
The biggest crypto exchange in the world is dancing around its future in America, and the market's reading between the lines. Binance exited the U.S. market three years ago under what looked like permanent circumstances - a criminal settlement with the Department of Justice, reputational damage, and regulatory exile. But things shift in crypto faster than market sentiment, especially when you've got a presidential pardon in your corner.
Former CEO Changpeng Zhao got pardoned by Trump in October, and suddenly Bloomberg reported last December that Binance was quietly mulling a U.S. comeback. That sparked speculation about whether one of crypto's most dominant players would actually try to reclaim its American foothold. The answer came at Davos on Tuesday, sort of.
"A very important marketplace," Richard Teng, Binance's co-CEO, told CNBC in a carefully measured interview. But then he pumped the brakes with classic corporate hedging: a "wait and see" approach. It's the kind of statement designed to keep regulators and investors guessing while the company figures out its next move. Teng, who spent time as a regulator himself, knows how to thread this needle.
That's when Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, basically called Binance's bluff. Speaking to CNBC minutes later, Garlinghouse wasn't buying the wait-and-see act. "It's a very large market, and not that many years ago, they were a material player," he said of Binance. "I think they'll come back because they're a capitalistic, innovative company that wants to solve larger markets and continue to grow."
It's the kind of prediction that carries weight in crypto circles. Garlinghouse knows the competitive landscape better than most. He also understands why Binance returning would shake things up. The exchange operates on razor-thin margins globally - their pricing is significantly cheaper than what American exchanges charge. If Binance comes back with that same model, it creates immediate competitive pressure. Garlinghouse sees this as a net positive for the industry though. "I think it will actually have the positive impact of bringing more people into the market, in part because it'll reduce pricing," he told CNBC.
